Factors Influencing Instructors’ Retention in TVET

Abstract

Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in Kazakhstan is currently viewed as one of the most important sectors of the educational system since it prepares sufficiently skilled and trained individuals who will work in the rapidly changing knowledge economy. This educational sector has also hugely expanded because of changes that have occurred in the national economic structure and a concurrent lack of skilled and qualified workers. Due to the massive expansion of TVET colleges, the demand for teachers and instructors has risen. However, this demand cannot be met because of an undersupply of new TVET instructors and the difficulties involved in not only recruiting teachers to the profession, but retaining them as well. This study is aimed at exploring those factors, as perceived by college instructors, that have the greatest influence on teachers’ decisions to either continue their career in TVET or to depart. To address the research question, a qualitative research design was used by conducting semi-structured interviews with eleven instructors working at a TVET college in Kazakhstan. This study employed maximum variation sampling in order to select participants purposefully among TVET instructors working at this college and to explore the problem from different perspectives. Diversity was obtained by choosing participants who differ in terms of gender, years of experience, previous workplaces and disciplines they teach. The findings revealed that organizational factors such as salary, workload, administrative support, collegiality, professional opportunities and autonomy are significant factors that could influence instructors’ retention. The study concluded by suggesting some recommendations for policy makers and college administrators to enable them to prevent high rates of faculty turnover in TVET.